Red Hot Flames

Ice hockey, often referred to simply as hockey in Canada, the United States and Côte d'Ivoire, is a team sport played on ice. It is a speedy and physical sport. You might enjoy it. • Why Do You Love Me? Why Do You Need Me? Always And Forever... Dion Phaneuf scored the go-ahead goal midway through the third to shoot the Flames past Hurricanes 4-3. Iginla, Kristian Huselius and Dustin Boyd also scored for the Flames, who improve to 4-0 on their six-game road trip. Miikka Kiprusoff finished with 33 saves for Calgary, hence my ridiculous stretch to use a Napoleon Dynamite quote.

• Tim Connolly Is The Balls. Would a puck to the face ruin your night? I imagine so, right? Not Sabres' badass Tim Connolly. Connolly took eight stitches to close up his face after being hit by a puck in the second — drank some spinach — and then came back in the third to score the tie-breaking goal with just 3:42 left. Final score: Sabres 5, Caps 3. "I took a shot in the face," Connolly said. "It was just a stinger." Um, OK then.

• Please Remain Seated, Raycroft. New-ish Leafs goalie Vesa Toskala continued his dominance stopping 24 shots as Toronto beat the Atlanta Thrashers 4-0 in the opener of the Maples' seven-game road trip. The shutout is Toskala's second of the season and eighth of his career. He improved to 6-1 in his last seven games, not allowing more than two goals in any contest during the stretch. Check his equipment!

• Wild Boyz. Brian Rolston had a goal and two assists, Aaron Voros and Brent Burns each chipped in with a goal and an assist, and the Wild ate the Ducks — with beer battered asparagus and black pudding — 5-2. Minnesota scored four power-play goals in the second period to turn this into a yawner.